DT News - UK - An app twice a day keeps the dentist away

Dental Tribune International

Mon. 7 September 2015

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PLYMOUTH, UK: The Brush DJ smartphone app, developed by British dentist Ben Underwood, is designed to encourage youngsters to adopt and maintain an effective oral health care routine. Brush DJ integrates music into the everyday process of toothbrushing and provides child-oriented videos that demonstrate basic oral hygiene routines. Researchers from Plymouth University have now shown that the app has a definite positive effect on the motivation and oral health practices of its users.

Brush DJ was launched at the App Store at the end of 2011. In 2013, the app won the Dental Hygiene and Therapy Award for Best Dental Innovation and was accepted into the NHS Choices Health Apps Library. By February 2015, Brush DJ, which is free (with no advertisements or in-app purchases), had been downloaded on more than 197,000 devices in 188 countries. It can be used with any type of toothbrush.

The app plays music for 2 minutes, taken from a playlist or randomly from the user’s own device or cloud, in order to encourage toothbrushing for the recommended optimal time. Apart from that, it reminds users to spit out after brushing but not to rinse, sets reminders to brush twice a day and use a mouthwash at other non-brushing times of the day. Moreover, it sets alerts for dental appointments and reminders to change toothbrushes once every three months. Fundamentally, it aims to make brushing teeth fun for youngsters.

The researchers’ aim was to assess the user perception of Brush DJ as a basis for the future research and development of app technology in relation to oral health. They designed a questionnaire that was completed by 189 users of Brush DJ. The study found that 70 per cent of respondents reported that their teeth felt cleaner since they started using the app and 88 per cent said that Brush DJ had motivated them to brush their teeth for longer. Ninety per cent said they would recommend the app to their friends and family.

The research team concluded that not only had Brush DJ contributed to greater motivation for young people to care for their teeth more effectively, but it also has huge potential as a way to convey important oral health messages and information. Indeed, a recommendation from the study suggests that it would be reasonable to prescribe such an app in the same way in which fluoride toothpastes are currently prescribed in the UK.

“Brush DJ showed positive effect across four main themes—motivation, education, compliance and perceived benefits. The results of our study indicate that apps such as Brush DJ are beneficial to users and open the way for further research to extend their use and effectiveness still further,” commented Underwood, who is an Honorary University Fellow at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and who led the study.

“Caries and other dental health conditions are ultimately preventable, and the great thing about an app such as Brush DJ is that we can show that it has a positive effect for children. Bearing in mind that almost 26,000 children a year are aged between five and nine are admitted to hospital for dental treatment in the UK, for conditions which are on the whole preventable through better understanding and adoption of good oral health routines, the potential for Brush DJ and apps like it to reduce that number is huge. More research based on the findings from this study will help us to develop the app and investigate methods for its more widespread use,” added Prof. Elizabeth Kay, Foundation Dean of the Plymouth University Peninsula School of Dentistry and co-author of the study.

The study, titled “The use of a mobile app to motivate evidence-based oral hygiene behaviour”, was published online on 28 August in the British Dental Journal.

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